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IHE 



Political Questions 



OF THE DAY: 



m-] ^ili^rc^^ delivered at Srokdwav fthll, 



OAKLAND, 



I )eoember 24tli. 187:^, 



CHARLIiS A. WASHBURN. 



.^ 









BffOTrannrffPT? INTERS 



w^ 



THE 



Political O^iestions 



OF THE DAY 



Si] Sddre^s' delivered kt Srokdway ftkll, 



OAKLAND, 



December 24:tli, 1873. 



CHARLES A. WASHBURN. 






£"^7/ 
yrsz 



ADDRESS. 



Among tlio weaknesses of Imumn nivture to which all men are 
subject, and which all wise men deplore, is that of ]n-ocrastination. 
The most trivial and common-place affairs are allowed to push 
aside those serious matters that should be the rule of conduct and 
guide of life. Of the duties thus deferred, is that of attending to 
public aflfairs and of investigating those things which it is every- 
body's business to act upon, but which are seldom duly considered 
and examined till the time for action is close at hand. Then it is 
when impartial investigation is impossible, when in the heat and ex- 
citement of a political canvass the judgment is warped and blinded by 
partisan prejudice, that most people give any serious attention to 
the affairs of State; and as they are by this time no longer open to 
argument or conviction, they follow their old-time leaders in their 
efforts to glorify their party and justify themselves in adhering to 
dead issues and }iarty distinctions. The platoons and cohorts of 
party very seldom change front after the battle has begun, and if 
we look through the political history of our own times, we may notice 
that the thoughts of men have crystallized into convictions when 
neither canvassing nor stump-speaking were availed of to befog the 
intellect or excite the passions. Revolutions, though sadden in 
appearance are years in their growth. It took not only decades 
and generations, but centuries of tyranny over submission, of big- 
otry over credulity, of knowledge over ignorance, of luxury in the 
midst of want, to so surcharge the French nation with that com- 
plete sense of their wrongs, which, when it broke forth and first felt 
its own power, became an engine of atrocities, to be guided at the 
pleasure of a Couthon, a Robespierre, or a Marat. Men do not be- 
come infuriate merciless demons, to combine in large numbers and 
indulge in brutal crimes, \mtil they have first been subjected to pro- 
longed and cruel injustice. And when they do break forth in re- 
volt, their excesses will be in a ratio corresponding with the oppres- 
sions and wrongs that they have suffered. 

So it was the great change that took place in the p\iblic mind 
during the twenty years that preceded the great rebellion, rather 
than "that defiance and muUification had culminated in an attack 
on the flag at Fort Sumter, that led necessarily to a war of sec- 



— 4 — 

tions. The same spirit of defiance had been shown thirty years before. 
But the people had tlien scarcely begun to realize their accounta- 
bility for a system which they acknowledged to be wrong, and 
which they thought might most profitably be let alone. Yet a rev- 
olution was all this time in progress. The changed sentiment of 
the country found expression in the election of Abraham Lincoln ; 
and when resistance was next offered, it was found that the day for 
compromise had gone by ; the people of the free States were pre- 
pared to meet force with force, and ready to atone with their own 
blood for their indifference in the past. 

The authors of this revolution were not the men who led our 
armies to battle, llie real heroes who braved the storms of oblo- 
quy and abuse by venturing to tell people of their duties as well as 
their interests, were the men who deserve the most nol)le apotheosis. 
It is to .John Quincy Adams, to Garrison, to Seward and Theodore 
Parker ; to Greeley, and Hale, and Ikiley and their co-laborers, 
rather than to Grant, or Sherman, or Sheridan, or Thomas, or Far- 
ragut that we owe it, that there is no longer an irrepressible con- 
flict. These latter were never moved by those grand ideas of 
statesmenship and eternal right as were the former. Though with 
their own good swords they cut the way to victory, and peace lolth- 
out conflict^ yet to a higher degree is the nation's gratitude due to 
those noble men who pioneered the revolution on the ground of 
principle and riglit. 

But a panic is not a revolution. It is but a spasmodic outburst 
that may be for a day, a month, or a year ; and when it subsides, 
people are as indifferent as ever to the causes that produced it. 
Under its excitement men become unreasoning, prescriptive, and 
unjust, indulging in persecutions which they recoil from in their 
cooler moments. The " know-nothing" whirlwind that swept over 
the country less than twentj years ago v,-as a })anic and not a revolu- 
tion. It was but a ripple on the surface of the great current of events, 
and when it subsided people became more apathetic than ever 
respecting the causes that had provoked it. Ashamed for having 
lent themselves to a cause so narrow and contracted in its aims 
and purposes, they sought to show their apostacy to it by indifference 
to the one principle on which it was founded. 

Now whether we are in the midst of a revolution or merely in 
a panic, is to be judged from the magnitude of the issues before the 
public. If for a long time people have been ground under the iron 
heel of monopolies and corporations, from which there is no escape 
by means of the Constitution and laws of the country, then it is 
time for a revolution that shall overturn the Constitution and give 
us a better government. But if it is but an awakening of the 
people to their own shortcomings in neglecting their own interests 



— 5 — 

and choosing incompetent and corrupt men . to be their Law 
makers, and Avhich only required a pojiular expression to 
correct the evils, then it is a panic which, like the thunder 
storm, will be of short duration but yet shall purify the 
political atmos[)here and arouse people to the duty of requiring a 
higher standard of official morality. But whether it is a panic or 
a revolution, there is none of that partisan blindness which during 
the excitement of an election prevents a fair discussion of the 
situation. Parties seem to be assuming those new relations incident 
to the burial of old issues and the consequent necessity of new ones; 
and therefore I take' the occasion to offer some suggestions, in 
the hope that they may be weighed and considered during the lull 
of party politics that now obtains. I speak for no party, and if my 
ideas be crude and my views impractical they commit no one but 
myself. 

In times past a few of us felt it to be our duty to advocate prin- 
ciples and doctrines that were then so unpopular as to be dangerous 
to those who upheld them. Since then they have become the law 
of the land, and are now almost universally approved. 'Tis true 
the later lights of the successful party, like Felton, and Booth, 
and Gorham, and Swift, and Shannon, and Bowie, and Upson, and 
Paul Morrill, if they condescended to notice us, always denounced 
us as disturbers and fanatics; but no sooner did the fires of success 
light up the fields of carnage and booty than we found them in the 
front, denouncing us neglectful of the " man and brother." So I 
expect to live to see the day when the measures and policy I have 
now to suggest, but for which I claim nothing new, will be as uni- 
versally accepted and to see those who shall at first deride and 
oppose them afterwards support them so zealously, when they see 
them becoming po|iular,that they will denounce me for lukewarmness. 
It matters little that a measure Avhen first broached is ill received. 
Innovation is ways offensive to habit and self-conceit. Alen 
take it as an insult if they are told that what they have been 
accustomed to consider as the perfection of wisdom is not really 
so, and that they have been blindly and stupidly carrying burdens 
from which one good vigorous thought would relieve them. They 
hate to acknowledge their folly by giving the vigorous thought 
and so plod on in the old way. 

The late Horace Greeley adopted as a princi[»le in the conduct 
of his newspaper, that he would tell peo[>le not what they wished 
to hear, but what they ought to know. By adherence to this policy 
he placed the Tribune on a higher plane than that of its cotem- 
poraries, and made it, so long as the rule was observed, the most 
potent journal in the country. Yet with this encouraging ex- 
ample, how few do we find who can rise above the tricks of the 



— 6 — 

demagogue, and tell just what they beUeve. How seldom do we 
find an editor in this respect like Greeley, and among public 
speakers do we ever find one who does not try to flatter his 
audience ? who is willing to hazard liis popularity by boldly ad- 
vancing truths that he knows will provoke hisses instead of applause, 
and send liim to Coventry sooner than to Congress ? Occasionally, 
one who has no popularity to lose, and can, therefore, never be a 
candidate for the popular suffrages, may venture to tell people 
what they ought to know, being utterly indifferent, so far as he 
himself is concerned, whether they hke it or not. Such a man do 
I profess myself, and to convince you that I am in earnest, I expect 
to speak to you in a manner that will- offend everybody who honors 
me with his attention. At the same time, I expect to say some- 
thing that Avill please evei-ybody, for men are prone to delight in 
seeing the follies and errors of others exposed, though they take it 
in high dudgeon when their own shortcomings are held up to ridi- 
cule and censure. Hence, as I do not expect that very many will 
agree with me on every point, I hope to speak plainly enough, and 
set forth my ideas clearly enough to offend all the rest. 

And now, to come at once to the practical questions of the day, 
what are the issues now before the people of California, or rather 
those that during the recent political campaign received most of 
their attention ? What measures were they discussing at their 
firesides, in the public mart, on the streets, in the counting-house, 
the tavern, and the corner grocery ? Not tariffs nor free trade, 
not qiie:tions of labor and its reward, of European immigration, 
of home n?>*nufactures, or of becoming one of the United States, 
by adopting the national currency. Nothing was said during that 
war of gladiators of reducing the hours of a legal day's labor ; 
nothing was avovred publicly and above-board of guarding the 
/I venues of learning against the efforts of bigots and sectarians ; 
notlrng of educati'ig the masses to self-reliance and independence, 
that they might guard themselves against the devices of the devil, 
now in the form of a ranting leveler and now in the garb of a 
Jesuit priest. On all these matters scarce a word was said, but 
the sole question over which the dominant party contended was 
this : shall California be next represented in the United States 
Senate by George C. Gorham or Newton Booth ? This question 
was agitated and discussed by our newspapers and public speakers 
almost to the exclusion of every other, as if they wished to belittle 
us as a State and dwarf us as a people, by a tacit admission that 
there was no one else in the State competent to the position of 
Senator, and that, too, when we had, standing out resplendent with 
their acquired laurels, such intellectual giants as Cole and Fay — 
such prodigies of purity and honesty as Casserly and Pixley, 



The stalking horse behhid which tlie contestants discharged 
their blunderhusses, was tlie C'entral Pacific Raih'oad ; and though 
no one pretended to tell how the peo])le were to be relieved from 
the insolence and overcharging of the great monopoly Ijy the elec- 
tion of this man or the defeat of that, they had the satisfaction of 
making ugly faces at the Company, and of seeing it obliged to sus- 
pend the extension of its roads into the more remote parts of the 
State. They had the higher satisfaction of seeing the construction 
of other roads to the Pacific, also suspended, and their com[)letion 
posti>oned for a long time ; so that for years to come, the Central 
Pacific will have a complete monopoly of the overland business. 
Ihe catastrophe which the destructives have precipitated, will put 
millions of dollars into the pockets of Stanford and his fellow de- 
spoilers ; and for indefinite years must the peojile of the Pacific 
Coast submit to the tyranny and exactions of a gras[)ing, defiant 
monopoly. 

But all through this campaign, the vital practical living issues 
that directly and immediately touch the interests of the people, 
were utterly ignored. The result was an exjiression of popular 
hostility to that chief of abominations, the railroad monopoly, 
which holds the material interests of the State in its iron folds ; 
that huge constrictor that has so effectually crushed out competi- 
tion, that trade, and commerce, and agriculture are at the mercy 
of a merciless despotism. But this expression of the public voice 
was, I fear, only a voice ; vox et prceterea nihil. Among all the 
speeches and editorials of the campaign denouncing the railroad 
monopoly, no remedy was proposed ; no means suggested to re- 
press its arrogance, or counteract its power for evil. No one who 
exposed or railed at its abuses rose to the dignity of statesman- 
ship so far as to suggest any plan of relief. We did not lack for 
scolds to denounce and threaten. Destructives and levelers were 
to be heard at every gathering. But ihe voice of a statesman — of 
a constructive ])olitical leader and economist, who could propose 
anything to supplant this grinding monopoly, and give us something 
better — something that should aid the farmer and mechanic — some- 
thing that should bring us capital, and create factories, thus find- 
ing enn)loyment for all who are willing to labor — that voice was 
never heard. Of cheap demagogues who could pull down — who 
could decry existing evils — the world has never known a lack — but 
of those who could suggest measures of improvement, and, as re- 
medies to admitted abuses have advocated innovations and changes 
of a constructive and creative character, there has always been a 
marvelous scarcity. And when we have had one with the energy 
and courage to undertake great enterprises, and successfully j)ut 
them into execution, we have had whole communities to sa^- tliat 



— 8 — 

such things ought to be done. ^Ye have numberless writers and 
editors to tell us of the benefits to be received by the public, if 
other people will only undertake and carry through such schemes 
as the introduction of pure water, the construction of gas works, 
manufactories, and railroads. Appeals to men of wealth and en- 
terprise are incessant for them to come forward and carry out 
these projects, and earn the gratitude of the people, who, in turn, 
will build them monuments of marble or of bronze. But the monu- 
ments' to those who do undertake these public works, if they suc- 
ceed, and do not beggar themselves, are not generally of marble, 
but they are more often effigies of themselves, to be burnt in the 
pubhc streets, as if they were public enemies. 

A dozen years ago, the great necessity of California was felt to 
be a Pacific railroad. Our speakers and politicians waxed elo- 
quent on this subject, and our newspapers were teeming with 
articles, showing that it was the duty of Congress to aid and of 
capitalists to undertake that great work. 

At last a few men of hmited means, but of patriotic impidses, 
who, long l)efore the war, had been pronounced in their opposition 
to the extension of slavery, had the sagacity to see that a Pacific 
railroad was a national necessity, that as a union measure it ought 
to receive the support of the national government, and casting their 
bread upon the Avaters, they embarked all they had in the perilous 
venture : their name as responsible, fair-dealing men ; their for- 
tunes, which, though not large, had been acquired by years of toil 
and economy ; their assured competency, for the risk of failure, 
bankruptcy, and an old age of penury. But they ventured all ; 
and when abroad I learned of the success of the enterprise, I con- 
fess I rejoiced to know that it was in the hands of union men, men 
with whom I had been in sympathy, during those angry days pre- 
ceding the rebellion ; men who had been known as earnest, self- 
sacrificing Republicans ; good citizens, commanding the respect of 
all as men of integrity and public spirit. And the people of Cali- 
fornia recognized the service that those men had rendered to the 
State and nation, and rejoiced at their success ; and had they been 
satisfied, not with moderate, but with enormous fortunes, they would 
have been regarded to this day as great public benefactors, entitled 
to all the civic honors that a generous people could bestow. 

But who and what are those men now ? Their career illustrates 
as well as any example shice J'^lisha foretold to Hazael, the change 
that should come over him on his accession to power, the wisdom of 
the prayer of Agur, " Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me 
with food convenient for me : lest I be full and deny thee, and 
say who is the Lord ? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the 
name of my God in vain." 



— 9 — 

These men who as merchants or business men stood above rc- 
proacli, whose word was as good as their bond, who •,, onldbe 
ashamed to take an unfair advantage in business, wliat would tliey 
not do now, as raonopohsts and milHonaires to carry a point ! There 
is hardly a meanness to which they will not stoop, or an advantage 
they will not take. As men of business, whose standing depended 
on their general character, they would scorn to meddle in the low- 
tricks of politics. But as railroad kings they thrust their poljuting 
hands into every ward caucus. They dictate to their followers their 
boarding-houses and washwomen. They discriminate in their 
charges to the minutest details, giving special rates to their friends, 
or rather subjects, general rates to the public, and excessive rates 
to their enemies or competitors. They wish it to be understood that 
it is for every man's interest to bow down and worship them, and 
to make that plain, they plant the iron heel on these Avho refuse to 
do so. Lelaud Stanford, the oil merchant, would never have set up 
a rival candle shop alongside, of a small dealer on another square 
to break him down, nor would Huntington, much less Hopkins, have 
kept an hour in his employ an expressman who had purposely run 
down and smashed up the wagon of a rival hardware dealer. 
There is not a hoodlum that cries newspapers on the streets, nor a 
blear-eyed cripple who sells songs and cheap literature at the cross- 
ings, who would not be ashamed to sell you yesterday's paper for 
that just issued, or to take your money on the last day of Decem- 
ber for an almanac of the expiring year, when you had paid it for 
the one which was incoming. But the railroad kings, now they are so 
rich and powerful, that they feel they are above the law and can 
with impunity defy and insult whom they plcase,do not think it 
oi^t of the way to run an opposition steamer in order to break down 
any little boat that should try to accommodate people they had be- 
fore neglected ; or to endanger the lives of scores of people by run- 
ning down the vessel that had the temerity to carry them in oppo- 
sition to the great monoply. They have no shame in taking your 
money or my money for a commutation ticket from Oakland to 
San Francisco within three days of the end of the month, and j)ut- 
ting on you a ticket good only for two or three trips, when you 
think, and they know you think, you are commuting for a mouth. 
Tluy can sell you yesterday's daily, or last year's almanac, and 
when you complain to their underlings the satisfaction you get will 
be a brief notice that you can go to the devil. 

Does any one excuse such acts ? Not one ; and we shall be told 
that the chief men of a vast corporation cannot know of the inso- 
lence and impertinence of their underlings and upstarts. But if 
there is any truth in maxims or proverbs, this is true : " Like mas- 
ter, like man." The employes of the railroad company know full 



— 10 — 

well what general deportment will most please their employers. 
For years I had the fortmie, good or bad, to reside in a country 
where the government was an absolute despotism. The head of 
that government was a monster without parallel in the history of 
the world. A tyrant and an arrant coward, who saw an enemy in 
every bush, and quivered and shook at every sound, his only de- 
light was in the misery of those around him. His diversion was 
the infliction of torture, and he spared neither age nor sex. Nei- 
ther ftlelity nor kinship came between him and his victims. His 
best ofiicers were arrested, flogged, and shot, without knowing their 
offense. Plis brothers and sisters were tortured days, weeks, and 
months, being kept alive solely that their unnatural brother might 
enjoy the sight of their agony. His own mother was treated with 
the same unnatural brutality, and when rescued from the grasp of 
her tiger cub, her back was but one mass of putrid sores, in which 
the maggots held carnival. This man, or rather monster, did not 
apply the lash with his own hand to the backs of his brothers, sis- 
ters or mother, nor did he tie the thongs that were to tear his vic- 
tim's limbs from their sockets. But his underlings kncAV well his 
fierce and cruel character, and that any leniency shown to prison- 
ers would subject them to equal tortures, while any excesses would 
be forgiven, or rather would procure promotion and favor. Hence 
they showed alacrity in torture, and seemed to enjoy its infliction. 
The same spirit of flunkeyism may be seen everywhere. The arro- 
gant, ill-natured, tyrannical master is sure to be waited on by one 
who takes pride in imitating his rudeness and brutality. If the 
subordinates of the railroad are rude and uncivil to the public, they 
are so in imitation of their chiefs. They have learned that com- 
plaints for incivility are either not heeded or are passed to their 
credit ay showing zeal for their masters' interests. 

That such men, whose wealth is told by millions, should stoop to 
such T3ontemptible tricks merely for the slight pecuniary gain to 
themselves, is incredible. It is the lust of power that governs 
them in descending to such meanness ; they want to make people 
feel how broad is the scope of their influence, and that there is no 
one so humble but he may be reached by the wand of their mo- 
nopoly and be made to wither and wilt as did the tree which Christ 
cursed. They wish all to understand that they are responsible to 
neither God nor man ; that they are to say who shall be Senators 
and Representatives in Congress, State legislators and judges. 

That it is the lust of power which now governs them, is evident 
from the fact that their wealth of many millions to each is far more 
than they can care for, either for comfort and luxury to themselves, 
or for a heritage to their children. The almost universal exper- 
ience of Ilepublican institutions in America is, that colossal fortunes 



— 11 — 

are dissipated within one or two generations; and it is not to be 
supposed that either of these raih'oad magnates will be so inconsist- 
ant as to be a rival of Peabody or Girard, and to leave the mil- 
lions, wrung to a large ext6nt, at the jirice of the curses and cries 
of the multitude, to compound with the future for the oj)pressions 
of the j)resent, by founding sonic scientific, charitable, or educa- 
tional institution. No ; i)hilantliropy does not rob Peter to jiay 
Paul, nor wrong the neighbor to be generous to the strangftr. It 
does not refuse justice to bestow bounty. 

I do not say that in the use they make of their power they are 
not like other men. Who can say that he, if suddenly lifted to 
great wealth and power, would not abuse them to tyrannize over his 
fellow-men? If such known philanthropists as Pickering or Fitch, 
and Fay and Cohen, and Reese and Ilaggin — men who are known 
to wander about nights to find avenues for their charities — were 
told that within a month a controlling interest in the C. P. II. R. 
would be theirs, and that they woidd be as extortionate, as avaricious, 
unjust and insolent as Stanford, and Huntington, and Hopkins, 
would not each exclaim : " But what ; is thy servant a dog, that he 
should do this thing I" And yet who does not knwv that if such a 
change were made, it would not be two months before the whole 
people would cry out for the return of King Log, in the place of 
King Serpent. 

The ti-uth is, as shown by all history, irresponsible power is to be 
entrusted to no man and to no set of men. In the hands of the 
best of men, even, it is ahvays abused ; and if experience teaches 
anything, it is that all authority should be subject to and under the 
direct control of the strong arm of the people. The divine right 
of kings is an exploded doctrine, and is not to be succeeded by the 
divine right of monopolies. The privileges of feudalism and the 
old nob/exse, are not to be relegated to the princes of shoddy or the 
manipulators of swindling raids on the Government. 

It is often said by superficial thinkers, that every peo[)le have as 
good a government as they deserve : that as the power lies with them 
it is their fault if they submit to oppression. Though this is not uni- 
versally true, it is true of the citizens of a republic. If they have 
a bad government and permit peculation, and fraud, and official in- 
competenc}'', when they and they alone have the power to correct 
all abuses, then they deserve to suffer, and we should rejoice in 
their agony of opjn-ession, for that and that alone will arouse them 
to their duties as members of the body politic. Society, or rather the 
great public, in every country where despotism is not absolute, is 
like a galvanic i)attery. This instrument may be charged with 
electricity to a small extent, and the subtle fiuid may be allowed to 
accumulate unnoticed until it can hold no more. It has no outlet 



— 12 — 

or conductor, and when the point of its utmost capacity is reached, 
it leaps forth hke a thunder clap, shivering all before it. So one 
abuse may be perpetrated against the people, and then another and 
another. All see and realize it and seetn to acquiesce in it, yet all 
the time the bod}^ politic is getting overcharged with resentment, or, 
if I may so call it, the electricity of indignation. The perpetrators, 
grown bold at the public indifference, give another turn to the cranlc, 
and then they add another, till, just as they come to believe that 
the people are mere passive machines, the accumulated wrath leaps 
out with a lightning flash, the structures of fraud and oppression 
are scattered in fragments, to be succeeded by a clear sky, a 
healthier atmosphere. 

In this country the cumulative wrongs take the form of gigan- 
tic monopolies, and are of a most dangerous and fatal character. 
Those of a more general character are the railroad, the telegraph 
and the combinations of capitalists to keep money out of the coun- 
try in order that interest may be kept at a high rate. 

Of all the inventions and enterprises that in these later days en- 
ter into the the comforts and necessities of the entire, community, 
the telegraph and the railroad alone possess the conditions essential 
to a strict monopoly. For their better working and greater useful- 
ness they should be all under one management, and no competition 
should be possible. While this may not be practicable at present, 
or to a limited extent only, so far as a railroads are concerned, yet 
there is no reason why the telegraph should not be so managed. 

Telegraph lines, to be self-supporting, must be many thousand 
miles in length, and should be able to gather the news and bear the 
messages from thousands of distant points. The lines of one 
company can do all the business on any and all routes at cheaper 
rates than it can be done by two or more. The expenses of build- 
and operating more than one, will necessarily be greater than 
those of a single line that should do all the business. For this in- 
creased expense, of course, the public must pay ; and hence it is as 
clear as the demonstration of a problem in Euclid, that in the tel- 
egraphing of the country there should be no competition. It should 
be done in the cheapest manner possible, and at rates so low as to 
make it a self-sustaining institution of the government ; no more, 
no less. It should be like the Post Office, a department run for 
the public good, for which each man who used it should pay just the 
cost of sending and delivering his message. 

But railroads over the same routes can bear competition still less 
tlian telegraphs. In fact in most cases competition is practically 
impossible. On the through lines between important points compe- 
tition may and does exist, but that is because the roads pass through 
different sections of country and accomodate a different way-travel 



— 13 — 

on whicli there is no competition. But over the same routes parallel 
lines would be simply ruinous, and hence they do not exist. In no oth- 
er branch of business does the same opportunity for monopoly exist 
as in these two. It is true, that a city can tolerate a ji;a.s mono))oly 
oi: a water monopoly if it chooses, hut there is nothing in nature to 
prevent other coni)ianics from making and selling gas in opjjosition, 
though the exjienses would then-hy he increased and the aggregate 
cost of gas to the community' would be more. Hence it would be 
better, except for the scarcity of honest men in municipal coun- 
cils, for the cities to own their own gas and water works. 

There is a great deal of talk about other monopolies, especially 
about the monopoly given to maimfacturers, by reason of a jtro- 
tective tariff. l>ut for this complaint there is absolutely no founda- 
tion in reason. What though the manufacturers of cutlery, or cut 
glass, of wooden ware, or of iron houses, make their ten, twenty, or 
thirty per cent, per annum on their capital, while the man who 
owns houes and lets them, or owns money and loans it, gets but 
half that interest. ^^ hy does not this latter sell his houses, or call 
in his loans, and go into one of these favored manufacturing 
enterprises that pay such enormous profits ? Why does he not 
get the advantage of this protective tariff by going into manu- 
facturing business, thereby doubling his profits at the same time 
that he gives employment to the men around him ? A year or 
two since, and that poor oppressed friend of the people, Cornelius 
Vanderbilt, complained that, owing to the duty on iron and coal, 
the miners and manufacturers of Pennsyivania were getting a larger 
interest on their capital than he was, and he wanted the tariff 
amended so that he couTd import iron and coal free of duty. But 
the great advocate of protection, and chosen leader of the Demo- 
cratic party, Horace Greeley, promptly met him with the charge 
that he was a fraud and an impostor. Why, said he, if manu- 
facturing is so profitable as you pretend, why do you not take a 
few of those ill-gotten millions, with which you are now trying to 
embarrass the government and all legitimate enterprises by your illicit 
speculations hi Wall street, and open some iron and coal mines of 
your own ? Why do you not build some furnaces, foundries, and 
machine-shops, and so share in these enormous profits of the 
manufacturers ? The field is open, and wherever the profits are 
unusually large, let capital and enterprise enter and take posses- 
sion. But Vanderbilt did not venture his money in any such un- 
dertaking, for though he had not too much principle to act the 
demagogue, he had too much sense not to know that in a country 
of free and intelligent people, where everybody is striving to get 
into the best paying business, no field yielding extra profits is ever 
left long "unoccupied. My friend, Michael Reese, complains that he 



— 14 — 

o-et5 onlv oiditeen per cent, a vear on his loaned millions, while 
my other friend, Donald McLellan, gets t-wenty-five per cent, m 
his business of manufacturing blankets ; whereas, if the duties on 
Avoollen goods were taken off, poor Michael might get the blankets 
that he sleeps under for one or two dollars a pair less, and Donald, 
after borrowing all the money he could from ^Michael, in order to 
keep on in business and keep his men employed, rather than turn 
them into the streets to starve, or to still further glut the labor 
market, he could close up his business, and deed his factory to the 
free trade ]ihi]anthropist, to be used as a rookerj^ But, as the 
duties are not likely to be taken off, wdiy does not Michael engage 
in one of those manufacturing monopolies ? Does he think the in- 
vestment would pay him so large an interest, that his conscience 
would not permit him to take it ? Perhaps that is the reason ; but 
a more likely one is, that he knows manufacturing in California, 
even with all the protection aff:>rded by the present tariff, does not, 
as a general thing, pay ^o high an interest as may be realized in 
other ways. Hence, I am justified in saying that monopolies in 
this country are limited to matters in which, for reasons of a 
physical cliaracter, there can be no competition ; and of these, the 
two of most importance are the railroad and the telegraph. 

And of these two, the telegraph, as now managed, is the greater 
abomination, and in all its aspects and features answers more nearly 
the description of an odious monopoly — the most odious and danger- 
ous ever known in the United States. Its network is spread all 
over the country. Its power as a political engine exceeds that of 
the Federal Government, with its standing army of office-holders. 
It is entirely antagonistic to the genius and spirit of Republican 
institutions ; a monopoly in the hands of the most unscrupulous 
stock-gamblers in the country. A majority of the stock is owned 
by none other than Commodore Vanderbilt, the richest as well as 
the meanest man in the United States. None but a very rich man, 
one having millions, is capable of the meanest acts. Vanderbilt 
with his hundred millions dares and does do things that would 
cause another man, having only his hundreds of thousands, to be 
scorned and shunned, and driven from all business and social 
circles. And this is the man who controls the Western Union 
Telegraph, and not only that, but he has a preponderating influence 
on railroad lines that represent on the stock board •'s'215,000,000. 

With his foot on the neck of commerce, his hand is on the 
throat of genei-al intelligence, which is doled out to the people of 
the United States as suits his pleasure or interest. The policy of 
this Company, of wiiich he is the controlling spirit, is not only to 
make enormous dividends to its managers, but to furnish people 
with the knowledge on which they shall found their opinions. 



— lo- 
in the dark ages of priestcraft and snf)erstitioii, when tlie cowl 
was paramount to the crown, and learning was the monojioly of the 
cloister, it was the policy of the priests to hold the keys of knowl- 
edge in their own hands ; and, so long as they could do this, they 
governed the world, 'i hey knew that knowledge was power, and 
the most dangerous order to human freedom and enlightenment 
which the world has ever known has constantly laliored to prevent 
peo]»le from receiving any knowledge except such as was filtered 
through the sieves of Jesuitical bigotry, and was stamped and ap- 
proved by the maw-worms of superstition. The disciples of Loyola 
are more busy and hopeful to-day than at any time since the i)rinci- 
pal sovereigns of Catholic Kuro})e were compelled in self-protection 
to banish them, as insufterable pests, from their dominions. Their 
object still is to hold tlie keys of knowledge. The free non-secta- 
rian school is their abomination, and they are subordinating all 
other questions to this one of the control of the school money. They 
would have the youth reared in the belief that their teachings are 
true and infallible, well knowing that when the majority of the peo- 
ple shall accept them as their sole guides in morals and religion, the 
church will be as absolute in authority as in the good old days when 
Galileo Avas imprisoned and Jews and heretics were roasted by 
scores at every auto-da-fe for the amusement and spiritual edifica- 
tion of the saints. These were the Jesuits of Loyola. Hard, big- 
oted, and logical, they sought power by holding the gates of learn- 
ing. But we have now another order of Jesuits, harder and more 
selfish than the others, but neither as honest nor as logical. They 
are the ])olitical, financial Jesuits, who seek to control the avenues 
of knowledge to the people, whom they tax enormously for the in- 
formation which they allow them to receive, at the same time they 
try to wield the power that elects Presidents and Senators, and 
blasts reputations, and makes heroes of nonentities in a manner 
never thought of by Pope or Emperor. 

The Western Union Telegraph now has its lines extended to all 
parts of the United States, and all the information it gives to the 
people must ])ass through the hands of agents, who are responsible 
only to the Company. Its charges are so excessive as to pay 
large dividends on stock so watered that its nominal value is five 
times the actual cost. On an investment of eight millions, and 
that mostly the earnings of the lines, the Company extort from the 
public dividends on forty millions, reserving all the while a fund 
sufficient to break down opposition throughout the less populous 
parts of the country. Between such large cities as Boston, New 
York, Philadelphia, and Washington, where the business is so vast 
they cannot aftbrd a destructive opposition, the rates are reasonably 
low. But wherever there is no competition, the charges are so 



— 16 — 

excessive that the telegraph is scarcely available for any but the 
rich. 

It is but about two years ago that a ten-word telegram from 
San Francisco to New York was $o. It would probably have 
been at that figure still, but for the antagonism of the other great 
monopoly, the Central Pacific R. R. Company. No ordinary company 
could have established and maintained opposition lines, but the 
Union Pacific and the Central Pacific needed one for their own 
accommodation ; it was useless for the Western Union to attempt 
to break them down by running opposition at losing rates. So they 
compromised by cutting down prices to half what it was, and five 
times what it ought to be. For this favor, this fraction of a just 
reform, the people of California and the Avhole Pacific Coast are 
indebted, not to the independent press that claims to be the special 
foe of all monopolies, but to the Central Pacific R. R. Company. 

As an adjunct of the Western Union Company, is another mon- 
opoly, so closely connected with it as to be almost, if not altogether, 
a part of it. This is the Associated Press Company. This Com- 
pany has its agents in all the principal cities, and, at less important 
])oints, the telegraph operators act in that capacity. Thus united 
this double monopoly has a great advantage in the coUeiction and 
distribution of news over anybody and everybody else ; and as the 
Associated Press has special rates for its transmission, all news- 
papers not belonging to it are at such a disadvantage, they can 
only keep the field by superior ability and enterprise. This Asso- 
ciation is a close corporation, to which only three papers in Cali- 
fornia are admitted. And these three papers claim to be the 
champions of the people against all monopolies ; at the same time, 
they maintain that one which is the most dangerous and most de- 
testable of all. 

In these days of rapid transit and great activity, tlie majority of 
people read little beside the first telegraphic news, and therefore 
they are almost compelled to take those papers having the fullest 
dispatches. Under existing monopolies it is scarcely possible that 
any papers can be so well served in that respect as those belonging 
to the combination. Hence people are forced to take them, no 
matter how much they detest their principles, or dislike tlieir pro- 
prietors. Having the power of coloring all facts of public interest, 
and knowing that opinions take form according to first im|)ressions, 
a monopoly like this may shape the national parties to a great ex- 
tent, and make great men of charlatans, and rogues the popular 
favorites. 

And why has this monstrous monopoly been tolerated so long, 
and why has not the press generally denounced and exposed it ? 
The telegraph company have provided against that. In its con- 



tracts with newspapers it provides that they sliall receive dispatches 
only on condition that nothini;; nntViendly or adverse to the monop- 
oly shall he admitted into their columns. The newspapers must be 
muzzled, before they can have the permission of Vanderbilt, Orton 
and 8imonton to jnihlish news. An indcjiondcnt press I Thralls 
and hirelings of a Jesuitical desijotism, rather let it be called. 

And now the question arises, how is this monopoly to be broken 
up ? The \N'estern Union people will tell us that we have only to 
establish other lines alongside of theirs, and the thing is done. But 
how are you and I that haven't any forty millions, or even eight 
millions, to start an opposition, to hel]i ourselves ? We are power- 
less, and they know it, and so they insult ns by telling us to help 
ourselves, if we can. In other countries, the government has 
stepped in and bought up the private lines, and taken the whole 
telegraph business into its OAvn hands. The result is, much better 
service at cheaper rates, at the same time that the business is self- 
supporting. 

The objection, and the only valid one in this country, to having 
the telegraph under the management of the Government is, the 
danger of centralization. It is feared that with the control of this 
vast engine of power, the Government might use it for improper 
purposes ; that it would largely increase the number of Federal 
office-holders, and that an ambitious President might use it to per- 
petuate his power ; that a third term, or a life term, would be easy, 
if the avenues of knowledge were guarded by those already ui 
authority. There is force in this argument. There might be 
danger to Republican institutions, if the telegraph were under tele- 
control of the Post Office Department ; but of course there can be 
none when it is managed by and for such immaculate patnots as 
Vanderbilt, Orton and Simonton, Pickering, Fitch and Anthony. 

Now I admit the danger of centralization, and that a great pow-er 
like that of the telegraph, ought not to be in the hands of the 
Federal administration. But a monopoly that is responsible to Con- 
gress is not so dangerous as one that is responsible to Vanderbilt. 
But is there no remedy against the abuse of such power possible V 
May not the Government own the telegra))h, and yet not have the 
control of it ? Cannot it be placed, though the property of the 
nation, in the hands of men who are not only above susi)icion, but 
who shall be indci)endent of the President, and not beholden to 
him either for their appointment or continuance in office 'i It can 
be done ; and it is the simplest thing in the world to put not only 
the telegraph, but the great railroad interests of the country under 
a direction that shall be efficient and harmonious, and yet be inde- 
pendent of the Federal Government — so independent, that Imper- 
ial Ca3sar could not turn off a brakeman, or find a place for a 
favorite. 



-^ 18 — 

For the Government to purchase all the railroads, or even a 
quarter of them, and try to mangage them, is preposterous. A 
measure of this kind would not be approved bj the people, and 
hence it is idle to discuss its merits or feasibility. It would so in- 
crease the national debt, as to seriously prejudice the country's 
credit, and would give occasion for a standing army of office-hold- 
ers so numerous as to be dangerous. Civil Sevice Reform, or some 
other scheme, must be devised, by Avhich the management of the 
road should not be subject to Federal interference : and even then 
the Government must begin by purchasing or building only one or 
two great highways from the granaries of the West to the sea- 
shore, and with a view specially, if not entirely, to reducing the 
cost of transportation. 

For many years the people of the Mississippi Valley have been 
groaning under the extortions of the railroads. So large a part of 
all they could raise has been taken to get the rest to market, they 
have found that even with industry and economy and abundant 
crops, they would make but little more than a meager subsistence ; 
while the managers and directors of the roads have as a rule be- 
come so rich as to reckon their ill-gotten gains by millions. These 
enormous fortunes have all been realized by overcharging the farm- 
ers, the merchants and the general pubhc. Each million of Van- 
derbilt, of Drew^, of Jay Gould and of the departed Jim Fisk, rep- 
resented the toil and sweat, the hard fare and the extra hours of 
labor of the workingraan, so that they have all clothed themselves 
with curses as with a garment. In casting about for rehef 
from this monopoly of transportation, the plundered farmers have 
proposed such national and State legislation as would compel the 
roads to charge only a certain price, both for freight and fare. But 
measures of this kind can bring little relief, for what power 
short of an absolute despotism can compel a man or a company to 
carry freight at all, or at a faster or cheaper rate than is suited to its 
own interest or convenience. The goverment, it is true, may require 
uniformity and general rates for everybody, and that freight or fare 
shall not exceed a given amount per mile : but Avhat if under this 
law a company finds it must lose money on every train '? who then is 
to compel it to light its fires or run its engines ? 

The good people of the State of Illinois thought to help them- 
selves by passing a law that no higher rates should be charged on 
local freight for short distances than was charged for through 
freight across the State. Now as the local business is nearly al- 
ways the principal source of revenue, it was inevitable that in ad- 
justing the new rates to meet the requirements of the law, the 
prices on through freights and fares must be augumented, while the 
local rates would be diminished. But on the through routes there 



— 19 — 

is great competition, and if the roads were compelled to raise the 
price of transportation across the State, then must the through 
freights seek other routes and avoid Illinois in their transit east and 
west. But if, on the other hand, the local rates were reduced to 
correspond witli those for long distances, than the roads would lose 
money on half the trains they run. In that case they would run a 
less number of them, and many jjlaces before accommodated would 
cease to hear the whistle of the locomotive. In this country there 
is no power to compel a railroad company to run its trains any more 
than there is to compel a private citizen to go to church or abstain 
from meat on Friday. Uniform rules prescribed by the govern- 
ment can never secure equal justice under such a multiplicity of 
circumstances and such a variety of conditions as is presented by 
the railroad interests of this country. There must be a plan de- 
vised that will admit of a certain amount of flexibility, so that every 
man shall be reijuired to pay cost and no more for what he 
receives. 

Therefore I say there is no remedy but for the Federal Govern- 
ernment to come to the rescue. The cities of the East realize that 
that they are the losers, as well as the Western farmers, in having 
the crops of the West rot on the ground, or the corn burned for 
fuel. To manufacture cheaply they must have cheap bread and 
cheap meat, but these things they can get only with cheaper 
freights. With cheaper food they can extend and increase their 
business, and the jjrimary question is, how to get it. The caj ital- 
ists of New England, always noted for sagacity, see that there are 
no other ways for bringing the grain crop of the West to the sea 
except by the way of the Vanderbilt, Drew & Gould railroads. 
They find that the St. Lawrence river may be made available as a 
great highway, and that other routes for transportation may be 
availed of to bring down the price of freights, and the interests of 
the great manufacturing towns of the East are so vast that they will 
have cheaper connection with the ^^"cst in spite of the railroad 
kings of New York, and with or without the aid of the Grangers. 
The interests of rival cities on the sea coast must in the end compel 
reduced rates. In anticipation ofsiich opposition, the moneyed men 
of New York, not of the railroad circle, who wish to concentrate the 
whole business of the country at New York, have projected an air- 
line double-track freight road from Chicago to New York. This, 
they think, would give the latter city an advantage over any other 
sea-board town ; but when completed it would be run entirely in the 
interests of its owners, and would be just as selfish or eager for big 
profits as Vanderbilt, or Drew, or ,Tay Gould. They would keep 
up their schudule to the highest notch possible without driving 
away freight to other cities and by other roads. Men never build 



— 20 — 

railroads for philanthropy, but for profits ; and the world is old 
enough for people to have learned that they can never confer pe- 
culiar ])0wer or grant special privileges on individuals or corpora- 
tions that will not use them and abuse them for their own special 
benefit. 

That this road may be run in the interests of the people and 
with no regard to profits of directors or stockholders, it should, it 
must be owned by the United States. It should be a freight and 
emigrant road, made and ballasted in the best manner possible ; 
the trains to run at a low rate of speed, and the schudule of freight 
and passage should be so low as but to pay the cost of keeping the 
road in repair, and an interest of say six per cent, on its cost to the 
Government. Thus managed the Government could never be a 
loser, and the people who used the road and had the benefit of it, 
would be those who paid the interest on its cost. 

So built and so managed, the road would carry freight for one- 
fourth or one-half of the present rates, and having established the 
fact that one road could carry freights and passengers at such re- 
duced prices, people would understand that other roads could do 
the same, at least approximately ; and if they did not, it would be 
because of mismanagement. Credit Mobilier rings, or from a de- 
sire to pay large dividends on stock highly diluted with water. 

But this road would not stop at Chicago. It would be extended 
across the broad plains of Illinois, and Iowa to the Missouri 
River, and thence inevitably to San Francisco. That the Union 
Pacific, and Central Pacific must fall into the hands of the govern- 
ment sooner or later, unless the first bond-holders are literally 
robbed of everything, I suppose no one doubts. That the com- 
panies ever expect to pay for them, and own them with a clear 
title, and no unpaid bond or claim hanging over them, I suppose no 
intelligent person believes. That part of the great scheme may, 
therefore, be said to be already half accomplished, and with a peo- 
ple united and determined no longer to submit to the extortions of 
the existing monopolies, but to have a government telegraph, and 
one great central thoroughfare, which shall serve as a regulator 
and guide to other roads, it Avill be but a short time before the 
extortions now practiced, both by telegraphs and railroads, will 
find a lasting remedy. 

The questions that now fitst occurr in connection with this plan 
are, how can such an increase of power be conferred on the Federal 
Government without risk of abuse ? Will not the people, from a 
Avholesome dread of centralization, rather suffer present evils than 
venture on an experiment so dangerous to Republican institutions ? 

But these dangers may all be avoided, and then the objections 
will be answered. I will tell you how, and I claim nothing new 



— -21 — 

nor original in ^vll;lt I have tn propose. My plan is sonK'thini: 
similar to, and yet very (liftercnt from, ^hat tlic .LMvatcst tliinker of 
recent times, John Stewart Mill, jimposeil in his essay on l^ei.re- 
sentative Government for forming an U]iper Chamber of I'.irlia- 
ment to supplant the effete and useless House of Lords. 

Let us suppose, then, that the United States shall be i)arceled 
out into seven divisions ; more might be better, but for the jaesent 
I will say seven. Let the New England States constitute one of 
these ; the Pacific States another ; the great Middle States the 
third : the Western States the fourth ; the Northwestern States 
the fifth : the Southern and Southeastern the si.xth and seventh. 
Now. having in the organic act for building or purchasing the road 
established certain rules, let a board of directors be constituted, 
who, under the jtrovisions of the same act, shall have the entire di- 
rection of the road and all its affairs, and these directors to be as 
independent of the President and his Cabinet, and also of Congress, 
as are the governors of the several States. In their appointments, 
the President should have neither hand nor voice, for thej' should 
come into office under the organic law. At the creation of the 
board, the director for each division of the States should lie the 
ex-governor, who had served as governor for the longest jieriod. 
and as vacancies occurred, they should be filled, not by the ap- 
pointment of the President, not by popular election, but the man 
■who for the most continuous years has been chosen and re-chosen 
years before as the chief magistrate of his State, should, in virtue 
of these endorsements, succeed to this high and responsible post : 
the highest, and Avith the exception of the President, the most im- 
portant in the land. 

It is not to be supposed that a board of directors thus constituted 
would contain many practical railroad men. But they would be 
sure to be men of practical sense, of approved integrit}- and general 
ability. If not experienced in the business they would not be wed- 
ded to any favorite theories or [irejudiced by former competition or 
rivalries. And if not practical railroad men, they would at least 
have the judgment -to employ those that were, and to supplement 
their own deficiencies with the best talent in the countr}'. In 
attempting any complex or untried business, it is well known that 
next to knoAving all about it is the consciousness of not understand- 
ing it, and a realizing sense of the necessity of getting the assist- 
ance of those who do. 

The jtromoters of the Central J'acific R. R. were none of them 
engineers nor practical railroad men when they entered on their 
great undertaking. A dry goods man, a lawyer, two hardware 
dealers, and an oil merchant made up the Company, and not one 
of them knew more of building railroads than he did of buildini: 



22 

ships ; and yet their worst enemies will give them credit for having 
managed their affairs with great ability and probably more success- 
fully than if one or more of them had been railroad builders by 
trade. But as they all enjoyed equal ignorance, they could agree 
on employing the best talent to be found, thus supplementing their 
own hard sense with the science, experience and skill of others. 
So, I believe it would be no objection but rather an advantage, to 
have a board of directors of a work or interest so vast, composed 
of men noted rather for their practical sense than for any specialty 
as engineers, contractors, or financiers. By having the control 
and direction placed in such hands, the much dreaded centralization 
would be entirely avoided and both honesty and efficiency be secured. 
With one great main line at first, and afterwards two, if the success 
r>f the first should warrant it, then three or more, traversing the 
continent, under such management the other lines would find they 
had real competition. The owners and directors of other roads 
would be obliged to conform to nearly the same tariff of charges, 
or else they would find narrow-guage roads built in great numbers 
as feeders to the great air-line tracks, thus leaving the old lines 
vvith little to support them. 

Of course a measure of this kind can only l)e carried through on 
the imperative demand of the people. The great railroad monopo- 
lists would oppose it at every stage, and every purchasable Con- 
gressman and every purchasable newspaper would denounce it as 
fraught with ruin to the country and the destruction of vested 
rights. But these monopolists have for years taken the cream of 
the nation's prosperity, have watered its stock to five times its cost, 
and received a high rate of interest on its inflated valuation, and 
it is neither hardship nor injustice for them or the telegrajih com- 
pany to receive the average returns of capital invested in other 
industries. 

Such is my plan in th ■ rough for placing the railroads in such 
hands that, being built or bought by the Government for the whole 
people, they may be supported by the whole people, and run for the 
benefit of the whole people, at the same time tliat the power and 
influence of the Federal administration shall be in no whit increased. 
Perhaps others besides the railroad monopolists and kings would 
object to such a policy. The destructives, levellers and communists 
would object to any solution of the problem that would remove all 
cause of complaint, and would join hands with the monopolists to 
defeat a measure that should bring prosperity to the land, if at the 
same time it took away all just ground of complaint against the 
Government. Destruction is the god of their idolatry, and at this 
time, when the people are justly clamorous for a constructive states- 
manlike policy that shall relieve them from their grievous burdens. 



— 23 — 

these niglit-binls of ill otncn are hoard cro.iking and threatening, as 
if iu destruction alone jieople might find redress of all their griev- 
ances. Men of this class may he ijopnlar for a time. Thus was 
Absalom, thus Kobespierre, thus John Wilkes, thus Aaron Burr. 
But, fortunately, unreason always rests on a fragile throne, and 
demagogues who apjieal to popular passions, and who incite to de- 
stroy, are sure to receive the final reward of an infamous or detested 
memor3\ The man who builds an aquaduct that lor centuries may 
give water to the thirsty, or a viaduct to shorten or ease the jour- 
ney of the footsore traveler, deserves the gratitude of future gen- 
erations. But to him, whose genius is oidy for destruction, the 
best boon is neglect and obscurity, to be followed by impenetrable 
oblivion. 

There is another evil in California, more disastrous in its eftects 
than either the railroad or telegraph monopolies. In one sense this, 
too, is a monojioly, as it inures entirely to the benefit of a few, and 
at the expense of the many. I allude to the combined efforts of 
the money lenders to keep out capital from abroad, whereby the 
rate of interest is kept up to usurious rates. This monopoly, though 
in one sense not a monoi)oly, as it is open to all who have money to 
lend, is the creature of a dozen men in San Francisco. Their ob- 
ject is to prevent any reduction of the rate of interest; and as this 
can be done most effectually by keeping out money from abroad, 
their policy is in direct antagonism to everybody else. Its origin 
T.'as an un])atriotic, selfish, dishonest desire to avoid the payment of 
honest debts to their full amount. Our high-toned, honorable capi- 
talists and merchants found when the legal tender act was passed 
that they could take advantage of the Government's necessities, and 
get a discharge from their debts by paying them iu depreciated cur- 
rency. When this sneaking repudiation had been achieved, our 
money kings found that they could make semi-treason doubly profit- 
able ; for having paid their own debts with a depreciated currency, 
they could now, by keeping that currency out of the State as a cir- 
culating medium, have a monopoly of money lending. So long as 
greenbacks did not come to California, there was no danger that 
eastern capitalists would send money here to invest, as its transfer 
would involve a loss of from 12 to 50 per cent. Though the inter- 
est here was double what it was in New Englai'd ou securities 
equally safe, yet who would bring his money here to invest it, 
when a toll or reduction of two years' interest would be the condi- 
tion of its introduction ? With this import tax on money, it is no 
wonder that it does not come here ; no wonder that we have so lit- 
tle manufacturing ; no wonder that our streets are full of men and 
boys willing to work, but who can find nothing to do. To establish 
varied industries in California, requires the inHux of large capital; 



— 24 — 

that influx would reduce the rate of interest, and therefore the Shy- 
locks of California liave decreed that the national currency shall 
not be tolerated on this Coast. They are and ever have been finan- 
cial rebels, whom, both during and since the war, have kept Califor- 
nia in a state of semi-rebellion. 

This monopoly of capital is well-nigh absolute here. The very 
man who paid off his own debts at the East in greenbacks, will 
publicly post his neighbor as a swindler if he attempts the same 
thing on himself. This he may be loath to do, but his masters, the 
great capitalists on whom he depends for accommodation, will 
tolerate no disloyalty among their subjects. Gold, gold, gold, that 
must be his standard of patriotism, morality, and religion ; and he 
who refuses homage to the golden calf, is set upon and followed 
with the cry of" mad dog." When Treasurer Cheeseman undertook 
to convince you that it was your duty as well as your interest to 
be loyal and true to the Union, you mobbed him and threatened 
him with death ; and yet, had you followed his advice, you would 
have saved from five to ten millions at least annually to the State 
of California. 

That this is so is apparent when you consider that, if gold and 
silver were the only currency throughout the United States, prices 
nominally would everywhere be very much less than they are. 
The man of a hundred thousand, and the man of ten thousand, 
Avould" count his wealth as nominally one-half or two- thirds of what 
it now is. Yet for exchange or purchase of other property, it 
Avould buy as much as now. He would, in fact, be just as rich, for 
the emission of paper does not create wealth. It does, however, 
inflate prices in nominal values, so that what w^e import from the 
East costs us from 30 to 50 per cent, more in gold than it would 
were there no paper money in existence, and everything was kept 
down to a specie basis. We have always paid (as well before the 
W'ar, when the bills of solvent banks were at par, as ever since 
greenbacks were invented) for the goods we have imported from 
the Eastern States at the inflated prices caused by the use of 
paper money ; and hence it is as clear as the sun at noonday, that 
our gold has not the same purchasing pbwer as it would have were 
it the exclusive currency throughout the whole country. And it is 
equally clear that if the money necessary for the business of this 
State were here and in greenbacks, prices of everything else would 
partake of the inflation of the East. True, our wheat and our 
wool would bring no more in foreign markets, but our gold and our 
silver wov\ld buy more domestic goods in Eastern markets. 

Our adherence to a metallic currency, does not in the least save 
us from the panics and fluctuations of the East. When gold goes 
up in Wall Street, the effect is instantly felt on California Street. 



A few months since, and there was a rise in tlie price of "^old of 
nearly ten per cent, in New York. Instantly every man wlio owed 
anything at the East, gathered up all the gold he could get and sent 
it forward, as it would buy more greenbacks, and consetiuently pay 
oft' more debts than it would have done a few .weeks earlier, or 
probably a few weeks later. And in this later panic, which is 
hardly yet over, San Francisco has felt the effects as much as any 
city in the Union in proportion to her population. This jianic 
scarcely reached here, yet vast sums of gold were quietly sent for- 
ward to be loaned out at a half cent, cent or cent and a half per 
day, should the panic last as long as our Midases hoj)ed for. 

But for the fact that our vast grain crop was just going forward 
to be drawn against, our nicney lenders would have had a golden 
harvest. By refusing extensions and demanding higher margins, 
they would "have gathered all the securities ])0ssible, in the way of 
mortgages, bonds and stoclvs, into their own hands ; and when the 
storm cleared away they would have been some millions of dollars 
richer; for the little fish would have been swallowed up by the big 
whales, for whose benefit the gold currency is maintained. 

The great, greatest want of California is home manufactures. 
They are wanted to give employment to our men, and boys, and 
girls. They are required to create a home market for the agricul- 
turists. But interest is too high to justify investments in manutuct- 
uring, and will be so until we change our currency. With that change 
millions of money will come here from the East, so many and vast 
enterprises will be undertaken, so many new fields of labor that 
every man and every boy can find such occupation, at fair wages, 
as his tastes and capacity fit him for. At present if there be an 
appalling, a frightful aspect in our future, it is in the fearful 
growth of what hi the language of the street is called hoodlumism. 
Our best citizens, the substantial workingmen of the city, those who 
read the papers, pay most of the taxes, and as they sway this 
way or that carry the elections, who when they had sons born 
to them, rejoiced and hoped to bring them up in the paths of in- 
dustry and virtue, to be like themselves good and useful members 
of society, find as their boys are growing to early manhood that 
there is no place for them. They are not needed ; there is no 
field of usefid emi)loyment open to them. They cannot be a]ipren- 
ticed to learn trades, for the monopoly of labor enjoyed by the 
trades union will not allow the manufacturing capitalists to take 
apprentices. The artizan or mechanic who cries out loudly against 
other combinations, attends caucuses and marches in torchlight 
processions, shouting *•• di»wn with monoi)olies,"' considers that his own 
trades union has a vested right to do all the labor in his pecidiar 
line, and that whoever attempts to act indeiiendent of their organi- 
zation is a common enemy to be destroyed. 



— 26 — 

I can imagine no more gloomy house than that of the worthy in- 
dustrious man and wife, who have several sons from twelve to 
twenty years of age. As children, they have always been sur- 
rounded by good home influences, and could their vital powers be 
directed to useful occupations, they would become hone?t men and 
useful citizens. But the father can find nothing for them to do. 
His own time is taken up in providing for them food and clothing. 
The boys cannot be idle. They must be at work, or they soon get 
into mischief. They form acquaintances among the vicious, and 
the parents soon loose all control over them. They wander about 
at late hours, and the father and mother, as they sit at the family 
hearthstone at the close of a hard day's toil, have no longer any 
pleasant topics of conversation. They hear the shout of the hood- 
lum in the street, and with fear and trembling they listen, dreading 
lest the door open and their own joy of other days, their fii-st-born, 
should enter staggering and drunk ; or they fear the greater sor- 
row of hearing that in a drunken brawl he has broken the head of 
some comrade or Chinaman, and been taken up to prison. 

0, it is terrible to think of the array of youth that are growling 
up in California to be thieves and vagabonds. Hundreds and 
thousands of parents see their children going in the broad road to 
destruction, and they have no power to hold them back. The 
youthful energy must find vent and spend itself in useful occupation, 
or it will carry them to perdition. But the monopolists of capital 
will tolerate no change that will bring money from abroad to be 
loaned at so low a rate of interest as to justify the establishment of 
home manutactures and other varied industries in which this sur- 
plus of youthful energy might be employed. Let the parents of 
those children, then, bear in mind that our own richest men, who for 
their own purposes are keeping out the national currency, and 
thus making the field of industry as contracted as possible, are 
coining their extra interest from the very blood, the bodies, and 
' souls of their children, who by them are driven into the ways of 
vice, and crime, and death. 

And yet this monopoly, with all its disastrous effects, its crushing 
ir^fluences on the State's prosperity, its filling the country with 
hoodlums, candidates for the State Prison and the gallows, "is sus- 
tained and justified by the self-styled independent press. Those 
papers whicli enjoy the monopoly of the Western Union telegraph, 
with its complement of the Associated Press, maintain that this 
monopoly of capital is a blessed thing. Well they may. The 
proprietors are all of the money-lending class, aiid they see that 
the rate of interest on their loans must come down with the intro- 
duction of greenbacks. They may well sustain monstrous monop- 
oUes, for they have no young hoodlums in their families to cause 



— 27 — 

them anxiety, and wliat matters it to them that the sons of other 
men are driven into the ways ot" temptation. 

But what is the remedy '? A repeal of the specific contract law- 
would now be ineffective, as the Supreme Court of the United 
States has declared such contracts Ici^mI and bindinjf. The State 
Legislature can do much towards aftectinj^ a change, and if the 
needed legislation could ho had and he sustained by the farming 
community, the thing would be accomi)lished. In the first jilace, 
people should l)e familiarized with the national currency, and to 
effect this a law should be passed that all taxes should be collected 
in greenbacks, and all salaries of State officials paid in the same 
currency. As the general imjn-ession now is that salaries are too 
high, this would be an excellent way to reduce them from *'» to 12 
per cent., at the same time that a vast service would be done to the 
public at large, by the forced introduction of this amount of cur- 
rency as a circulating medium. And our patriotic law-makers, it 
is to be presumed, would not be influenced by their own selfish in- 
terest in a measure so fraught with blessings to their constituents. 
They would doubtless delight to do this, that their conduct might 
stand forth to the world in contrast with the Congressmen who voted 
themselves increased pay for the future, and gratuities for the past 
in the shape of back pay. If the railroad would imitate these 
patriotic legislators, and reduce the rate of fare and freight to the 
extent of the difference between gold and greenbacks, and never 
receive at their offices and stations anything but currency, that 
more than almost anything else would force ])eoj)le to use greenbacks 
to a considerable extent, and their introduction into the country 
would doubtless so stimulate enterprise and immigration that tt 
would be more than repaid by the increase of Inisiness. 

If to these influences towards the introduction of the national 
currency, that of the farmers were joined, the thing would be done. 
If the Grangers would organize into a self-protecting society against 
the monopolists of the capital, and resolve to sell their wheat and 
their wool for greenbacks only, but at their equivalent in gold, 
they coidd compel the introduction of sufficient paper money to 
make it the circulating medium of the State. They have but to 
stand together. 

Were it not that this address had run to so great a length, I 
would like to consider the transition state of society, of commerce, 
and civilization in various branches. Owing to the extension of 
railroads into remote regions, which but a few years ago could con- 
tribute nothing towards supplying the markets of the world, vast 
tracts of before uncultivated lands are now made to contribute to 
the sustenance of the human family. The food produced now,'as 
compared with former times, is in proportion to the population, very 



— 28 — 

much increased. Such vast tracts of hind, that until recently 
blossomed only to the desert air, are now brou<^ht so near a labor- 
ing population, b}'^ means of the improvements in transportation, 
that they are made to furnish food for millions in tlie more }iopulous 
parts of the world. Every year the extension of the railroads into 
the remoter regions of the United States, towards the wilds of 
Russia, or over the pampas of South America, bring countless acres 
under the plow, whose products come into competition with those 
from the old grain-growing regions. Hence, it is hardly possible 
that the cereals of California can long be exported with profit to 
the producer. Owing to short crops, this season in Europe, the 
price of grain is high, and farming throughout the United States is 
well remunerated. Another year, and with full crops in Germany, 
France, and on the borders of the Black Sea, there may be no 
demand for our surplus wheat in any part of the world. What, 
then, will our farmers do for a market ? Will they say that next 
year will be as this year, and to-morrow shall be as this day, and 
more abundantly ? then Wisdom will say, " thou fool ! boast not 
thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring 
forth." Prudence, forecast, and statesmanship -would say, " now 
is the time to embark in varied industries, to establish factories, to 
commence the raising of cotton, silk, tobacco, and every useful in- 
dustry that shall give employment to men, and women, and boys, 
and shall not, at the same time, add to the threatened surplus of 
cereals." With such a population, that shall always furnish a home 
market to the producer, California would be independent and self- 
supporting, and with their superior natural advantages, her peo- 
ple might become the richest and most highly favored in the world. 
But the influence of labor-saving machinery in extending the 
acreage of land available for tillage, is but one phase of the revo- 
lution wrought by modern inventions. They have not only prac- 
tically increased the number of food-producing acres, but they 
have diminished, by three-quarters, the amount of labor necessary to 
secure the comforts of life. In times not far remote, and even in 
the memory of men not yet old, it required, in order to get the food 
and clothing necessary for life and health, that nearly every man, 
and woman too, should labor, and labor hard for ten, twelve, or four- 
teen hours a day. Those of us who are middle-aged men can remem- 
ber how hardly were earned the first few dollars which we could call 
our own. We can also remember how little money was in circula- 
tion, and that the hardiest men were glad to labor from before sun- 
rise till after sunset, for ten, twelve, or fourteen dollars per month. 
And these prices were all the farmers could afibrd to pay. They 
were obliged to work themselves as hard as any of their men, in 
order to feed, and clothe, and school their children, and yet make 



the two ends meet. They must rigidly economize to keep out of 
debt ; and the most the I'armer could produce, that would bear 
transportation to market, must go to get money to pay taxes, and 
such other things as salt, tea, coffee, and sugar, in such quantities 
as could be aftbrded. Of this, one-half was consumed in getting 
the other half to market ; so that what now would be considered a 
meager living was about all that the most thrifty and industrious 
could get for their incessant toil. But times have changed. The 
inventor has scotched the old serpent, and labor-saving machinery 
has lifted the heavy burdens from the sons of toil. The steam 
engine, the reai)er, the thresher, the S))inning-jcnny, and the 
thousand modern inventions, have so multiplied the [)owers of pro- 
duction that not one-third, perhaps not one-fourth, of the manual 
labor is now re(juired to secure the necessaries and comforts of life 
that it took forty years ago. Now shall capital get all the benefits 
of these improvements ? Shall the hours of labor be the same as 
when it took them four times the amount of human toil that it 
does now to secure the comforts of life ? I say, no ; labor has a 
right to share with capital the blessings that the world has derived 
from the inventor's brains. It the man of toil must now work the 
same number of hours as formerly to make a bare living, what 
advantageth it him that Watt, and Whitney, and McCormick, and 
Howe, and ^Voodworth, have ever lived ? The benefits nearly all 
go to the rich, whose accumuhitions would have startled their fa- 
thers ; and as the iron hands of the steam-engine do the work of 
human sinews, the competition in the field of labor is made more 
sharp, and the laborer is left more comj)letely at the mercy of the 
employer, because of labor-saving machinery. 

Now though capital has ever striven to retain all these advan- 
tages to itself, nevertheless, some of the conveniences and luxuries 
unknown to the laboring classes fifty years ago, come now within 
their reach. The man dependent on his daily toil even now, 
if he would feed and clothe his family comfortably, and educate his 
children, must labor hard and make his days long. But there is no 
necessity for men to labor as they used to for the bare necessaries 
of life. As with the advantages of modern inventions, not more 
than a third part of the manual labor is reipiired to secure the 
means of support as formerly ; it follows that if men labor now as 
they did then, and yet get but a bare living, the larger part of the''" 
earnings go to swell the gains of the rich. Hence we see colossal 
fortunes accumulating on every hand, and in their train follow lu.v- 
ury, immorality, and extravagance. The very submission of the 
many to excessive and unnecessary labor, serves but to pamper the 
depraved tastes and vices of the few. It is not only the right, but 
the duty of the laboring classes to refuse to labor as did their 



— 30 — 

fathers. Eight hours a day, as a rule, will be enough, if t^YO-tllirds 
or one-half can be employed for that number of hours, to produce 
all that is demanded for tlie health and comfort of the entire peo- 
ple ; and when the laboring classes submit to do more, the excess 
goes only to the luxuries and hoardings of the rich. 

The inequalities of fortune constitute one of the greatest dangers 
to a republican form of government. They encourage profligacy 
in the rich, and cause discontent and vice in the poor. Excessive 
luxury is always the harbinger of dissolution. Hence I regard the 
eight-hour movement as a healthful and hopeful sign ; and though 
the efforts of some of its advocates to enforce their measures by law- 
less interference with the liberty of others, is not to be justified nor 
tolerated, yet the fundamental idea of less hours to the laborer is 
patriotic and right, and its supporters are justified in endeavoring 
by all legal and moral means, to make it the rule and usage. 

I have thus spoken of the living issues before the country. But 
what are measures or theories, or even laws, as compared with a 
high moral standard among the masses of the people ? ' Long ex- 
perience has demonstrated that no theory of state-craft, no code 
of laws, no constitutional guarantees, can be made to avail against 
general ignorance and immorality. Only an intelligent and an 
honest people can long preserve individual liberty and efjual rights. 
Corruption in high places, if allowed to pass unrebuked, is sure to 
be followed and imitated by the masses, till such a thing as political 
morality is the exception, and official honesty unknown. To this 
general depravity succeeds anarchy, which in turn is always fol- 
lowed by violence and ends in despotism. History, if it teaches 
nothing else, teaches this ; and it would be well if the people of 
California would no\v consider their own moral bearings, and ask 
themselves whether or no those who are the loudest in their outcry 
against salary grabs and back pay steals are not indulging in the 
veriest cant and hypocricy. That the people should be disgusted 
and indignant at the passage of such Acts by Congress is but 
natural, and it is a healthful sign that it is so ; but are not those 
who are loudest and fiercest in denouncing all who voted for the 
back pay and increased salary bill, and President Grant who 
signed it, quite indifferent to the moral obliquity of their own 
leader and champion, who worked for and approved a bill giving to 
himself both back pay and increased salary ? Did he not violate 
the Constitution he had sworn to support by signing a bill that he 
knew contained an unconstitutional proviso which increased his 
own salary, and then drawing the money Avith eager haste ? 

During the last political canvass, who so loud as our doughty Gov- 
ernor in denouncing I'resident Grant for signing a bill that increased 
his own pay for his incoming term. Who, too, was so bitter in his ob- 
jurgations of those Congressmen that voted themselves back pay for 



— ?,1 — 

the past, find iiieroased [lay for the future ? But, alas ! the contortions 
his body, as he gesticnhitcd liis indi,i!;nation, rattk'd the money in 
his own pocket that had been obtained by a sah'iry grab and a 
back-pay steal. Had we a Nast among us to ilhistrate the beau- 
tiful consistency of our Governor, he shouhl represent him witli his 
mouth open, rolUng forth indignant scorn of the thieves and grabbers 
who liad soik^l their fingers with back [ay and (h-edit Mobilier 
Stock ; his right hand raised and outstretched to give enipliasis to 
his words, whik' his left was slyly stuffing iy his jioeket the bill he 
had just signed, giving himself an additio?iai thousand dolla -s a year. 

Vnxt though our Governor abused his trust, and disgraced the 
State by his action in the California increased salary grab and 
back pay steal, we, the citizens of California, have one consolation. 
lie did not sell himself so cheaply as did Schuyler Colfax. The 
late Vice-President received only >|!l,200 from that fund, which was 
distributed where it Avould do the most good ; but do you think 
our Governor, the head of the purit}' and reform party in Cali- 
fornia, would sell himself so cheap as that ? No. I scorn the 
insinuation, and, as a citizen of California, jealous of her good 
name, I repudiate the idea that her Governor would try to rob the 
State, unconstitutionally, for the paltry sum of 81.200. That he 
has done it for i$4:,000 is now known to all, and when we compare 
the political moralitj'^ of the East with that of California, we may 
take comfort to ourselves from the fact that our leading men hold 
themselves at a higher price for cash than do those beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, and that as 4,000 is to 1,200, so is California 
virtue to that of Indiana. The price of our statesmen at Sacra- 
mento is more than three times as high as it is at Washington. 
Let us, then, hear no more about corruption in California politics 
among the purity and reform leaders. 

Now I do not claim to be so much better than other people that 
I feel it my especial duty to expose their faults and shortcomijigs, 
and it is not from any ]>leasure I take in connnenting on the errors 
of a man holding iiigh position, that I make this allusion to Gover- 
nor Booth. As Governor, or prospective Senator, the individual 
NeAvton Booth concerns me very little. But the callous, stujiid 
indifference of the people to everything like common honesty in 
their public servxmts, does concern me and concerns everybody. 
The shameless effrontery of people who vaunt their own virtue be- 
cause they denounce the faults and corruption of their jjuiiiical op- 
ponents, while they rally around a man who is guilty in the con- 
crete of all they denounce in the abstract, evinces a state of moral 
obtuseness and profligacy of a most dangerous and threatening 
character. 

During the late political canvass in this State, the ])eopk' did 



— 32 — 

not seem to know or care whether or no their candidates had or 
affected to have common honesty. The two men in whose interest 
it seemed to be mainly conducted did not even affect enough hon- 
esty to hokl them to their pledges. No matters of practical states- 
manship were discussed, no question of higher law or natural right ; 
no measures of specific relief from the tyrannizing power of monop- 
olies, but only appeals to secure the election of this man or that 
man to the United States Senate, And yet, though the friends of 
one of them, who were working night and day to compass his elec- 
tion by representing that he was not a candidate and not in the 
canvass, not even in California, no notice was taken of the attempted 
foaud, as people seemed to think that if he could win by the trick 
it would be proper and legitimate, and they would console them- 
selves with the miserable saying that all is fair in politics. ^ 

The other man for whom that campaign was carried on, also was 
not a candidate. It was not that his friends had said he was not, 
and that he was trying to take advantage of their denial. But be 
had explicitly and publicly said, when running for the governorship, 
that under no circumstances would he, if elected, be a candidate 
for another position during his official term. Indeed, he could not 
honestly and decently accept an election to the Senate, for he 
would be under contract with the people to serve through his term. 
It would be dishonest for him to accept, even if elected — dishonest 
was the word he used, and should we not take the word of a Gov- 
ernor that he would not do an act that he himself had stigmatized 
as dishonest ? 

Now the temptation to accept the office of U. S. Senator is veiy 
gre..t, especially to a man who has resorted to dark and dishonest 
ways to obtain his election. Hence, after the shameful duplicity 
exhibited by both Gorham and Booth when canvassing before the 
people, and the liberality of Casserly when negotiating for the seat 
he now holds, I do not look for such Spartan virtue in any one of 
them as that he should decline it if offi^red to him. If people will 
vote for men who can be candidates only at the sacrifice of honor 
and truth, the inference is, that they prefer men who are destitute 
of those qualities — men who will break their pledges without scru- 
ple, and who, if censured for their violation, can turn to their con- 
stituents with the sneering reply that they were elected as pledge- 
breakers, as the representatives of untruth, the scoffers at honesty, 
the despisers of virtue and fidelity. 

But the fact that now and then a dishonest or unworthy man at- 
tains high position, is of little importance if the moral atmosphere is 
kept pure, and a high standard of integrity is maintained by the 
masses of the people. So long as the moral sense of the commu- 
nity is kept elevated and pure, no one individual can work serious 



— m — 

harm or danger. But when [leujile gruw inditterent uliether or no 
their public servants have even common lioncsty, so tliat tlicy rcj*- 
resent some })artj interest or private scheme, then indeed are we 
drifting on the rocks of" destruction. Then must the old ship lie- 
[tublic ere long founder, from inherent rottenness. The degene- 
racy which begets indifference to official morality, is the sign of na- 
tional decay ; of a death that has no resurrection. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 789 493 2 




